Tuna containing Mercury

[ronmolina]

Go here for starters:

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg.html

[ronmolina]

Here is a good table for you listing fish. Double the tuna totals as they were under reported in the past based on the latest data. Farmed fish have high pcps. I will see if I cant find the latest data.

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/sea-mehg.html

[ronmolina]

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FDA Mercury Fish Warnings to Get 5 Times Stricter, Says Spokesperson Physicians and Advocates Applaud New Standard To Reduce Mercury Exposure

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Apr. 7 -/E-Wire/-- FDA is strengthening its advisory for warning consumers about unsafe mercury levels in fish, according to recent statements made by its chief medical officer to the news media. Today, physicians and advocates applauded news that FDA is basing its fish consumption advisory for mercury on EPA's reference dose -- a standard about five times more protective than the "action level" FDA has used for over 20 years.

"It's great news for the Medical community if FDA is adopting the standard used by EPA and supported by the National Academy of Sciences," said Dr. Jane Hightower, author of a landmark mercury poisoning study in Environmental Health Perspectives and a recent resolution on "Mercury in Food as a Human Health Hazard" adopted by the California Medical Association. "I do hope FDA will provide additional information, test the mercury content of fish and better advise the public about exposure risks to mercury."

On Saturday, Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer of FDA's science office, was quoted in the New York Times, and earlier in the Mobile Register, as stating that "The FDA is basing its advisory on the EPA's reference dose." Dr. Acheson said that FDA was "trying to keep its advisory apace with the science and the data" and was also reconsidering its advice on how much canned tuna women and children should eat.

"After years of delays, FDA should revise its advisory to reflect the latest science and effectively warn the public," said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project. "Women and parents of young children especially need the best information available about mercury in seafood and exposure risks in order to make informed choices."

The first indication that FDA was embracing EPA's standard came when a FDA scientist coauthored a paper published last Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association analyzing the latest CDC mercury data -- after apparently "signing off" on using EPA's reference dose for determining exposure risks to mercury. According to the JAMA article, women who ate three or more servings of fish in the prior 30 days had mercury levels nearly four times higher than those who ate no fish and children who ate fish had mercury levels almost twice as high as children who didn't. The Center for Disease Control data indicates that 8 percent of women of childbearing age have unsafe mercury levels, equating to 325, 000 babies born at risk each year.

"Fetuses, and therefore women of childbearing age, are most vulnerable to the toxic effects of mercury on the young brain," said Dr. David Wallinga, a physician with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. "If FDA is finally embracing a more health protective standard, it should help lower mercury levels in the one-tenth or so of young women carrying 'unsafe' mercury levels."

EPA's reference dose for human consumption of methyl mercury is 0.1 micrograms per kilogram per body weight per day and was supported by the congressionally-mandated National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study. The existing FDA "action level," or the level at which the FDA may take legal action to remove fish from the market, is set at 1.0 part per million methylmercury in fish tissue. When converted to units relevant for human consumption -- 0.5 micrograms per kilogram per body weight per day -- this value is about five times less stringent than the NAS-supported EPA level.

Last July, FDA's food safety committee recommended that the agency publicize a scientific rational for continuing to use its action level, resume fish testing, add other high mercury fish to its "do not consume" list and warn pregnant women and young children to limit consumption of canned tuna, one of the most consumed fish in the U.S.

For more information see:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/05/health/05MERC.html http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/20.../abstract.html http://www.calphys.org/html/bb175.asp#112 http://www.al.com/news/mobileregiste....ssf/html_stan dard.xsl?/base/news/1049451634278540.xml http://www.mercurypolicy.org

[ronmolina]

Toxins Cited in Farmed Salmon
Cancer Risk Is Lower in Wild Fish, Study Reports
By Eric Pianin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 9, 2004; Page A01


Farm-raised salmon, a growing staple of American diets, contains significantly higher concentrations of PCBs, dioxin and other cancer-causing contaminants than salmon caught in the wild, and should be eaten infrequently, according to a new study of commercial fish sold in North America, South America and Europe.



The study, using Environmental Protection Agency health guidelines, concluded that although consumers can safely eat four to eight meals of wild salmon a month, consumption of more than one eight-ounce portion of farmed salmon a month in most cases poses an "unacceptable cancer risk."

Food and Drug Administration and fishing industry officials immediately took issue with the findings. They said the contaminant levels in salmon have declined by 90 percent since the 1970s, and that the remaining threat -- when balanced against the high protein and cardiovascular health benefits of eating salmon -- do not warrant shunning the food.

"We've looked at the levels found . . . and they do not represent a health concern," said Terry C. Troxell, director of the FDA's Office of Plant and Dairy Foods and Beverages. "In the end, our advice is not to alter consumption of farmed or wild salmon."

The two-year, $2.4 million study, funded by the Pew Charitable Trust and published yesterday in the journal Science, is the latest blow to the commercial fish industry, already suffering from growing concerns about elevated levels of mercury in tuna and shellfish.

The study found that salmon contamination varied by geography. Store-bought samples from Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Paris, London and Oslo were generally the most contaminated, while samples from stores in New Orleans and Denver were the least. Cities including Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle ranked somewhere in the middle, and their residents were advised to eat farmed salmon no more than once or twice a month.

EPA guidelines say that if a person eats fish twice a week, it should contain no more than 4 to 6 parts per billion of PCBs. The study found that PCB levels in farmed salmon sold in the United States and Canada averaged about five times that amount: 30 parts per billion. On average, farmed salmon had concentrations of health-threatening contaminants 10 times as high as those found in wild salmon.

Consumers may have difficulty distinguishing between farmed and wild salmon, because many stores and restaurants do not clearly label them. Wild salmon is three to four times as expensive, but some retailers confuse the issue by identifying farmed salmon as "Atlantic salmon." The study called for labels differentiating wild from farmed and noting the country of origin.

Ninety percent of the fresh salmon consumed in the United States is farm-raised, industry officials say. More than half of that salmon comes from Chile, however, where the pollutant level of farmed salmon is less than that of most other regions but still higher than in wild fish, according to the study.

Farmed fish contain higher concentrations of contaminants than wild fish largely because they are fed meal that consists of ground-up fish tainted with the contaminants. Wild salmon eat tiny fish and aquatic organisms that are less contaminated.

Salmon of the Americas, a group representing producers of farmed salmon in the United States, Canada and Chile, described salmon as an unparalleled source of omega-3 fatty acids for prevention of coronary heart disease and noted that contaminant levels for North and South American wild and farmed salmon are well below FDA and World Health Organization limits. Alex Trent, executive director of Salmon of the Americas, said his industry does not discount some of the health problems associated with PCB contamination of farmed salmon. But meat and dairy products consumed in large quantities pose similar problems, he said, and consumers would be foolish to deny themselves the health benefits of salmon.

"Scaring people away from farm salmon presents more of a health risk than letting them eat PCBs at these trace levels," Trent said.

But the study's chief author said the FDA consumer health guidelines for eating salmon need to be updated.

"We are not saying people shouldn't eat farmed salmon," said David O. Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the State University of New York's University at Albany and chief author of the study. "We're telling them to reduce their frequency of consumption until the industry can develop a food source for omega-3 fatty acids that does not have these contaminants."

Diet- and health-conscious Americans have turned to salmon in recent years, and about 23 million eat the fish more than once a month. The annual global production of farmed salmon has increased fortyfold in two decades.

Some producers of farmed fish have taken steps to improve the quality of the meal fed to their fish, although critics say far more needs to be done to eliminate PCBs and other contaminants.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, have been banned in the United States since the late 1970s and are among a dozen chemical contaminants targeted for worldwide phaseout under a U.N. treaty. PCBs, which were used as industrial insulators, persist in the environment and have been linked to cancer and impaired fetal brain development. Dioxins, a byproduct of high-temperature industrial and waste treatment, have been linked to cancer, reproductive and developmental problems and altered immune functions.

Jane Houlihan, vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group, said the study "leaves little room for the farmed fish industry to argue away the problems of polluted farmed seafood."

But Mike Bolger, director of FDA's division of risk assessment, said his agency is identifying sources of PCBs and other dioxinlike contaminants in fish and working with the industry on ways to reduce their presence in salmon feed. "We're convinced [this is] the most effective, efficient and quickest way of reducing exposure," he said.

[njjuicer]

mercury looks cool :D

[TrippersGirl]

Originally posted by Morgan
I think I'm going to start raising goldfish and eat them instead.:mad:

Can't win for losing these days.

LOL-that's funny :)

[ronmolina]

That is funny.